Parmesan Honey Pork Roast

 A few nights back I took a glorious Sunday nap. My daughter and husband were on a bike riding adventure and dinner was in the crockpot. It was my kind of Sunday. I woke up about 5:30 and checked my phone and found a text from my friend Morgan asking about our dinner plans. I told her sorry we couldn't meet up we had a roast in the crock pot. And then, I did something crazy.... I told them to come on over. You see, I am not spontaneous. I have people over for dinner, but I invite them, put it on the calendar, follow up, plan the full meal, etc. I most certainly don't try out a new recipe and have a dirty house to boot! This was super last minute for me, as in come over in 30 minutes. And you know what, it was real life and it was fun!

I am so glad this turned out to be good! This roast was a first for me, but it won't be the last! I should have known I could trust Six Sisters- I have always loved their recipes. 

Here are a couple of minor changes that I made to the recipe found here:

I used my yummy frozen basil cubes rather than buying dried basil.

Mine cooked in 3 hours on high.

I didn't remove the juices and thicken them with cornstarch. We just poured them over the meat straight from the crockpot.

I also whipped up a last minute Rustic Cobbler because I always have ingredients for it on hand... I bet you do too!

Pulled Pork for Pork Chile Verde Soup

I love each season when it starts and am normally so ready for the next by the time it is over, but I will miss soup season. We have been over 70 degrees most each day this month and this is our "cold" month in the Texas Hill Country. So, spring and grilling is just around the corner.

Before soup season ended, I whipped up a new soup thanks to my good buddy Pinterest. We made Heather's Pulled Pork (served on hamburger buns) last week and then used the leftover pork for Pork Chile Verde last night. Love this soup- it tasted like soup you would have at a nice restaurant. We paired it with little cheese quesadilla wedges. Delicious!

Resolution 2013: Get Organized Around the House

I like to think of myself as pretty organized, but there are definitely areas of my life that have a hidden junk drawer! Remember that episode of Friends where they discover Monica's junk closet and she is mortified? ha! I can relate! 

Here are a couple of favorite organizing tips I found online and a few from the annals of Your Little Birdie.

Batteries are all over my kitchen junk drawer! I love using these inexpensive thread or tackle boxes for batteries. Just see what fits best in each compartment, label them and restock as needed.

I own lots of jewelry! I have it in my closet hanging on 3M Command hooks, in a dresser drawer and in my own jewelry armoire. I wish I had seen this sweet display when I was organizing my earrings. Draw pulls and knobs work great to hang earrings. Watch for them 50% off at Hobby Lobby and stock up! 

I hate when my scoop necked tops fall off the hangers and I end up with hangers that look empty, but have shirts hanging half on and half off. Those shirts end up falling off and getting wrinkled. It is a sick cycle! I own about 20 of the felted hangers, but they are too expensive to redo my whole closet. Look at this clever idea! Genius! 

Show hangers are perfect for organizing craft supplies! Mine holds tulle, tape, wooden blocks, glue sticks, loose twine, magnets, sequin and rhinestones. If you are a crafter, I highly recommend a shoe holder!

I keep my recipes well organized in two cute and inexpensive photo boxes from Hobby Lobby. I have recently added a large three ring binder with dividers for all of the recipes I am printing off of Pinterest! I bought the binder and dividers at Target and keep a three hole punch handy by my printer. My dividers include Beef, Chicken, Pork, Apps/Snacks, Drinks, Desserts, Crockpot and Other. It works great!

This time last year I was going crazy trying to decide how to best store Christmas cards from years past. I decided on a blessing ring approach and it has worked well for 2011 and 2012! See more details here. 

Hopefully these tips will help you in an area of your home where you want to get organized! For more 2013 resolution posts, click on the button on the left. Happy New Year!

Eat Drink and Be Merry!

 My refrigerator is overflowing with so many yummy leftovers I may not have to cook for a week!

When you host family for any extended period of time, you spend a lot of time in the kitchen. You make a long grocery list after detailed meal planning of your very favorite recipes and then you over prepare, make lots of food, eat too much, and start the next meal as soon as the dishes are down. Don't get me wrong, I show love through food, so I am happy to cook and bake all through the holidays.

Here is a glimpse of our holiday weekend....

For Christmas Eve lunch, my Dad and step-Mom brought pizza! It was unexpected and perfectly simple for our casual lunch and gift exchange. I made a big salad and Pioneer Woman's Apple Dumplings.

For dinner on Christmas eve, we needed something simple since we were attending church services just before dinner. I made my favorite roast in the crockpot, green beans with brown sugar, and a pasta made from spinach and garlic. We were eating within 30 minutes of arriving home!

For breakfast on Christmas morning, we had monkey bread and migas. I don't know if migas are a regional food, but they are yummy! Eggs mixed with onions, jalapenos, tomatoes, corn tortilla strips, and cheese! 

I forgot to snap my plate at lunch on Saturday (bad blogger!), but we made Bunco Buns, veggies with Ranch dip, chips and guacamole and ate lots of leftover desserts!

For dinner, we had the easiest and best pulled pork with homemade potato salad. The BBQ sauce we used this time for the pork was a sweet sauce and I think I like it even better!

For dessert, in celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior, we made Pioneer Woman's Tres Leches cake. It is a wonderful moist cake with whipped cream on top. We covered it in sugar sprinkles and used the baby Jesus from my daughter's Little People nativity. She LOVED singing to her little baby Jesus!

 We have had a wonderful holiday with lots of time at home playing and watching TV in our jammies! We are celebrating with more friends and family 3 nights this week, so our Christmas is still in full swing!

Any favorite foods from the holidays in your kitchen? I'd love to try something new!

So Simple Pulled Pork

I love Pulled Pork and I do an awful job making it, until I found this recipe. I'm so glad I didn't give up on it.

So Simple Pulled Pork

(from Pinterest I think!)

Pork Tenderloin

1 bottled root beer (16 oz)

1 bottled BBQ sauce

Place tenderloin in crock pot and pour root beer on top. Cook on low until done (mine was about 4 hours). Shred with fork and toss with BBQ sauce.

Enjoy!

Tacos Al Pastor Recipe

I had Tacos al Pastor about 3 months ago. And, I fell in love! So, I dug around online and found the simplest recipe that seemed to match the restaurant taco I so enjoyed. These were super simple to make and both Marcus and I thought they were amazing! A new favorite!

• 1 pound pork tenderloin, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 (8-oz.) can pineapple tidbits in juice, drained
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon Mexican-style chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 6 (8-inch) soft taco-size corn or flour tortillas, warmed

• 1. Combine pork and next 9 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic freezer bag. Seal and chill 4 to 24 hours.
• 2. Cook pork mixture in hot oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, stirring often, 10 minutes or until pork is done. Serve mixture with warm tortillas and

Really, only 2 steps and most ingredients are already on hand! Enjoy!

Did I Pack Elastic Pants?

The food! Oh, the food of Savannah was amazing!

Marcus and I had our first meal and realized how much we have adjusted our eating to our 2 year old! We ate that first meal so quickly and with little conversation! The remainder of our trip we slowed down, enjoyed dinner, and talked about real life adult things. It made the meals all the better! I had done research and made us a daily agenda that included our meal functions. We made a few on-site adjustments, but for the most part, we followed our plan and were so impressed!

Our dinner at Broughton and Bull was divine! The bread and oil before dinner was so tasty! We had this meal just after our private carriage ride. The location is wonderful for entertainment all around and is clean and modern. I'd highly recommend the lasagna, best I've ever had!

I love bar-b-que, so I had to have Georgia BBQ and see how it compares to Texas. I went with pulled pork and was impressed. The sauce was sweet and a nice compliment to the pork. I loved that they offered fried pickles as a side item. So much better than cole slaw ;)

I also tried an olive and cream cheese sandwich as part of our foody tour. It was salty and a unique experience. I don't think I would order it in the future.

Our lunch on Monday was comprised of 2 hours and 6 locations! The foody tour was a highlight of our trip. It was just us and a tour guide walking around sampling the best of the little known places inside the historic district. She knew everyone everywhere and they had a table waiting for us. We had chocolates, cupcake, shrimp and grits, collard greens, cornbread casserole, olive and cream cheese sandwiches, ice cream samples, and bread pudding.

Of course we had to visit Paula Deen's place! Monday through Saturday, you have to make a reservation, but on Sunday it is first come and first serve on the buffet. After visiting a historic church in the area for service, we had the buffet lunch. We had roast beef, fried chicken, creamed corn, lima beans, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese and more! Every person at the table gets a garlic cheese biscuit and a hoecake. A hoecake is like a cornbread pancake and is best warm with syrup. It was so good! Crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. For dessert, we tried the walnut butter gooey cake and the banana pudding.

She also has a great store attached to the restaurant with merchandise. I bought a few spices and souveniers. She had baby shirts that said, "got butter?" instead of "got milk?". So stinkin cute!

Our first night in Savannah we had dinner at Uncle Bubba's Oyster House. Uncle Bubba is Paula's brother and his seafood restaurant is just a little outside of town on the marshlands. It is rustic, casual and wonderful! We shared chargrilled oysters (his specialty), a crab and shrimp cheesy dip, and fried pickles. That left us just enough room for these divine desserts. My shortcake was sweet and tart! Oh, and the sweet tea at Uncle Bubba's was the absolute best and I tried it all over town. The fresh mint and lemon wedge sold me and I'll be planting mint at home soon.

I loved every bite of Savannah and am glad I packed elastic pants! We ate all around town!

Super Bowl Party Recipes

I am a football junkie as in I play in multiple fantasy football leagues each year, make my husband buy us the NFL Sunday Ticket on DirectTV and can talk football with most anyone.

It is a joke in my house that my two personalities collide when I spend Sundays watching football and baking. It is who I am. In case you need some football food ideas, here are links to some of my favorites. I have made and love all of these. We will be at our Sunday School class' annual Super Bowl and Chili Bowls dinner -watching the game while judging the chili of our classmates. Always a good time!

Easy Pork Empanadas

Crabbies

Pizza Dip

Spicy Bean Dip

Green Chile Cornbread (I will be taking this for all the chili)

Three Ingredient Turtles

Easy Pork Empanadas

As a born and bred Texan, I really hesitate to call these empanadas. They are really good, but not traditional empanadas. Ironically, I pulled this receipe from a newspaper in Michigan while traveling on business. Michigans consider this an empanada!

Pork Empanadas

Mix together:

1 cup pulled pork (I buy it pre-done and refrigerated in the meat section of the grocery store)

1 T diced green chiles

2T taco sauce (found on the mexican food aisle)

Scoop meat mixture onto biscuits stretched out

Fold biscuit over.

Brush 1 beaten egg or melted butter over all biscuits to help with browning.

Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes.

These are great alone or dipped in salsa or queso!